Why do people go to concerts? It seems like a superfluous question considering the answer should be quite obvious. Live music holds a certain appeal. What’s more, seeing an artist you know perform a song that you remember intimately right in front of you is an unrivaled experience. But this holds true for all genres of music. Some concerts, though, are more than just the sum of the music the artist will put on a show for. Some attract the crowd because the artist is also the performer. Some concerts are frequented because you want to feel the music. You might hope that you get such a concert from most dance music artists, but with Kiesza, you go in knowing that. And that alone is a gift by itself.
Making waves across the country this year with her 2014 album, Kiesza descended into Madison this past Sunday at the Majestic. I personally had been looking forward to this show since the Majestic first announced their April lineup. I was first introduced to Kiesza last year when I stumbled across “Hideaway” in a random dance playlist on Spotify. We’re well into the next year and I have yet to tire of this song. Kiesza once mentioned in an interview how her biggest hit ever was composed and written within the span of an hour.
Sadly, with it being this close to finals and the day of the concert being a Sunday, the venue was less packed than I otherwise know it could’ve been. The concert held avid fans more than the people who’d have luckily stumbled across her music and discovered how fun it is, something that no doubt contributed to a somewhat lackluster energy in the crowd. Dance music and dance concerts specifically serve one main purpose above all others. Their job is to make you move. They have to make your body hum and sing along to the tune. The music throbbing and permeating every surface around you should flow through you as well. It should bring waves and rhythm to you. And such a thing should only be amplified when the artist is a gifted dancer themselves. You’d think that all there was to Kiesza was her music. But oh can she move. She and her posse of two back up dancers put everyone in the venue to shame, repeatedly.
Kiesza put on a show, going through her entire album with her big hits of dance numbers and slow love ballads—she was quite the performer. “Sound Of A Woman,” “What Is Love,” “Oops” and “Hideaway” were the only songs the crowd truly came alive for. Had this been another time and another place in the year, the show truly could have achieved the remarkable potential it had written all over it. We can only hope that she returns to Madison again to witness the true force of us Badgers at dance concerts. That is, when it’s not on the cusp of finals week.
